Jerry Rinaldi

Gerardi Rinaldi (also known as Jerry Rinaldi) is a high calibre wrestler that has transitioned successfully into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. A black belt in BJJ by Renzo Gracie, the former 197 lbs Cornell University Wrestler has achieved several important trophies in his grappling career such as 2x D1 NCAA All American champion and an important Silver Medal at the ADCC (2009) with only 18 months of Jiu Jitsu training.

Gerardi “Jerry” Rinaldi Biography

A native of New Jersey for most his life, Jerry Rinaldi was always keen on combat sports, having started competing in Wrestling, a sport he truly excelled at. Rinaldi’s notoriety first came as he became Lodi High School State Wrestling Champion a success he carried on to Cornell University, becoming part of a fantastic generation of American wrestlers along with names such as Ben Askren, Cole Konrad, Johnny Hendricks, Sam Hazewinkel and many others.

At Cornell University Jerry Rinaldi became a D1 NCAA champion on two occasions (2006 & 2007) ranking fifth on the school’s all-time wins list at the time, having his arm raised 118 times. After his career as a wrestler reached its terminus, Rinaldi was expected to quit the sporting life and indeed he found a job at an insurance company and kept in contact with wrestling by working as an assistant coach in Lodi and Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, but his competitive flame was still very much alive. Gerardi then joined Karl Pravec’s academy (Silver Fox BJJ), he also travelled often to the city (New York) to train with Pravec’s instructor, the illustrious Renzo Gracie.

With such a tremendous wrestling experience and of course the work ethic of a wrestler, Jerry Rinaldi picked up Jiu Jitsu like a sponge, and within 18 months he was already a brown belt competing against the best grapplers in the world at what is considered the toughest submission wrestling competition in the world, the ADCC (2009). Gerardi surprised everyone running through his division, only losing (by a marginal advantage) against a 5 time world Jiu Jitsu champion, Alexandre Ribeiro in the final.

Gerry Rinaldi continued training hard, making frequent trips to Renzo Gracie’s matrix academy, and on the 9th of May 2011, after taking a BJJ class with grappling expert John Danaher, Rinaldi was graduated black belt by Renzo Gracie.